Westlands Water-U.S. drainage settlement is fair and equitable

Field workers harvest iceberg lettuce April 9, 2015 in the Westlands Water District near Five Points, Calif. Westlands is the largest agricultural water district in the country, providing water to 700 farms in over 1,000 square miles of land in the Central Valley.

Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

After decades of hearings, reports and public meetings and a comprehensive review by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Interior, as well as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the United States and the Westlands Water District hammered out a landmark, bipartisan settlement that provides a transparent, fair and equitable solution to a 50-year dispute over the federal government’s responsibility to provide drainage services for Central Valley farmers.

It is fair for farmers, who lost the productive use of their land, and for the federal government, which faced liability for the property damage estimated by the Justice Department to be as high as $2 billion. Negotiated by the Obama administration, the settlement resolves the long-standing litigation, clearing the way for farmers who receive water from the federal Central Valley Project to regain productive use of their land, and providing numerous economic and environmental benefits for the San Joaquin Valley and California.

Now it is time for Congress to finalize the settlement.

Despite efforts by some to tie the settlement to unrelated issues, the basis of the settlement was solely the determination of which entity was at fault. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has found that the Department of the Interior is required to provide drainage services for lands served by the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project, and the government’s failure to provide drainage caused the environmental damage to farmlands.

As with any settlement, both parties were required to compromise and agree to terms that they did not want to accept in order to provide finality to a decades-long conflict.

First, Westlands agreed to retire no less than 100,000 acres of land from production, which reduces the amount of land that can be farmed in the region. The district has retired that farmland.

Second, the settlement limits Westlands to 75 percent of the water it is contractually entitled to receive.

Third, Westlands will indemnify the United States for future claims resulting from the federal government’s failure to comply with the law.

And, Westlands agreed to take responsibility for drainage and damage to drainage-impaired lands.

In exchange, the federal government will forgive a $375 million debt for Westlands’ share of the cost of the extension of the Central Valley Project that delivers water to the district. Failure to resolve the litigation and take responsibility for drainage and damage to drainage-impaired lands would keep the region in extended limbo and affect the Bureau of Reclamation budget by as much as $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.

That’s one of the reasons the settlement was approved by the Obama administration and is also supported by the Trump administration. Regarding agricultural operations in the future, Westlands and the Obama administration’s Interior Department developed several options: land retirement, groundwater management, source control, regional reuse projects, drain-water treatment and salt disposal. Moreover, Interior reiterated: “Westlands will be subject to all state and federal laws and regulations regarding its obligation to provide drainage and will be subject to those requirements under the settlement.” And if Westlands fails to perform, its water supply will be shut off.

There have been decades of delay for the Central Valley farmers who lost the productive use of their land. The settlement is a bipartisan agreement that was hammered out over a decade and brings finality and stability to the state’s agricultural producers.

The final step in the process is Congressional approval of the settlement. That action will demonstrate that a carefully negotiated, bipartisan agreement can be approved for the benefits of all parties.

Johnny Amaral is the deputy general manager of external affairs of the Westlands Water District, an agricultural irrigation district serving 600,000 acres of farmlands in the western San Joaquin Valley.